Julie's Journal

It’s no secret around here how much I love my cats. In fact I love my cats more than I love most human beings, ha! I know, that’s not a nice thing to say, but hey! They are loving, they always want to please, and they don’t talk back.

When I heard it was Be Kind To Animal Week this week, May 3-9, 2009, I thought to myself, what? Isn’t that week every week? Really, right!?

The Home Again Web Site supports the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week® May 3-9, 2009, by donating $1 to bringpetshome.com for every pet registered to the program during this time frame.

HomeAgain encourages pet owners to “be kind” to their companion animals this week by supplying them with proper identification that cannot fall off or become impossible to read, and in the process donate to the care of shelter animals. For each pet registered, HomeAgain will make the donation through bringpetshome.com – a fundraising Web site specifically created to help shelter animals.

HomeAgain is a comprehensive national pet-recovery service that goes beyond microchipping. For an annual subscription fee, HomeAgain members have telephone access to pet-recovery specialists and 24/7 emergency medical assistance at 1-888-HomeAgain. The program also includes up to $3,000 (less a $50 deductible) in medical pet insurance for lost pets and up to $500 in reimbursable travel expenses for pets found more than 500 miles from home.

As usual, I’m not on the ball when it comes to the holidays and Mother’s Day is no different. I’m probably the worst daughter when it comes to this holiday as I never remember to send anything. Well Mother’s Day is fast approaching and if you’re like me, you are scrambling to figure out what you are going to do for her on this day. Well you better start thinking fast and start looking for some free Mothers Day eCards. They are a great last minute way to tell your mom how much you love her.

Got-Free-Ecards.com has a pretty large selection of free eCards that I haven’t seen on other sites. Sending cards with Got-Free-Ecards.com is always FREE. There are no hidden costs to send or receive their animated ecards, no matter which type or category of animated ecards you choose. Every animated eCard on their site is free to send, and to receive. Look how cute this one is!

What’s really cool is you can also add a song, photo or personalized audio greeting to your eCard, and no registration is required to use the site. But if you sign up with them for birthday or any event reminder in the month of May 2009 (May 5 – May 31st) you will be entered to win an iPod Nano!

And remember, Father’s Day is just next month on June 21st, and Got-Free-Ecards.com also has a great selection of free Fathers Day eCards. So what are you waiting for. Be a good daughter or son and send your mom a Mother’s Day eCard for free!

I am so ready for a new laptop. Like yesterday ready. I’ve reformatted mine a couple times now, and it just doesn’t run as good as it use to. I’ve did two memory upgrades on it, but it still just seems so slow and sluggish. It is quite possible that I could just get a new hard drive for it and it would be fine, but I’ve had it for so long that I just want a new one. And what is up with laptop batteries? When are they going to actually last long enough for anyone to be mobile and productive?

I’ve had my eye on a Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC ever since seeing it at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier in the year.

The Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC has the options of a solid state (up to 128GB) or standard hard drive and comes in cool colors like garnet red, emerald green, onyx black, crystal white, and classic black. They even have matching accessories including a fitted leather case.

So there you go boys, that’s what I want for Mother’s Day. But I understand if it’s too spendy. You can just spend the day with me instead

I got the cutest book the other day to review here on my blog, and I also have a copy to giveaway to one of my readers.

It’s called Dirty Bow Wow: A Tribute to Dogs and the Objects of Their Affection written by Cheryl and Jeffrey Katz. The book is just adorable and if you are a dog lover you will really enjoy the 50 full-color, all-breed canine portraits, each posed with a favorite play toy and accompanied by an affectionate anecdote.

To celebrate the books release the Dirty Bow Wow Dog Toy Drive starts May 2009 at bookstores across the country. It’s your chance to help shelter dogs find the toy of their dreams, and hopefully a permanent, loving home. Here is a list of retailers who are collecting dog toy donations or hosting events. Drop off a new dog toy at the location nearest you, and aid a dog in need today!

Dirty Bow Wow Giveaway: To enter for your chance to win a copy of Dirty Bow Wow: A Tribute to Dogs and the Objects of Their Affection all you need to do is leave a comment on this post telling me about your dogs favorite toy.

Dirty Bow Wow Giveaway Rules

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me about your dogs favorite toy.
2. One winner will be drawn randomly from all the comments I receive.
3. Contest ends on Thursday May 14, 2009 at 12:00 noon Pacific.
4. Winner will be contacted by email.

This Dirty Bow Wow: A Tribute to Dogs and the Objects of Their Affection review and giveaway is part of the Family Review Network.

Are you a homeowner looking to have some work done on your house? If you look in your local yellow pages to find one you are faced with hundreds of different ones that you know nothing about. How can you make such an important decision just by picking the one with the best looking ad? The solution is ServiceSpider.com that lets you see pre-screen contractors in your area that are waiting to compete for your home improvement project.

All you need to do is post your home improvement project on their site (for free) and let the contractors bid for your job. When the auction ends, you get to choose who you want to complete the job. Every contractor has their own profile page with all their company information, including their feedback score. This score is based on other homeowners like yourself who have worked with them on a home improvement project and reviewed them.

This service is free for the homeowner, and they charge a small flat fee of $199 for two years, for the contractors to create a profile page and bid on jobs. The ServiceSpiderpro.com package includes a custom built profile page that combines them with Google AdWords to bring you sales leads and reduce your marketing expenses.

This service is a great idea, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try them out if I was in the market for home improvement projects. So take the frustration out of finding a contractor in your area and check them out.